Mise-en-scene For Your Opening

Costume: There is 4 characters in our opening, a family of four including a teenage girl and boy, a mum and a dad. Then there is a little girl who is the scary one in the horror film. The mum will be wearing denim jeans and a cream casual top aswell as a black coat, the dad will also be wearing denim jeans, a blue top and a black coat. the girl will have leggins, a pink top and a body warmer on and the boy will be wearing grey joggers, a white top and a body warmer aswell. The clothes picked for the family are quite plain as they are a layed back normal family and I want to get this across in the opening. Also they are in the process of moving house so they wont be dressed up in dresses, nice tops etc. The little girl in the attic will be wearing a black dress like costume, she wont have any accessories or anything and she will have her hair down and over her face, this is a typical convention of a horror film as the scary character is in black.


Mum:   this was a good idea for the mums clothes as we plan to film on a fairly dull day, so the coat and jeans fit this perfectly. Also these are typical clothes that you would expect to see a mum wearing.






Dad:     The dads clothes were picked for the same reasons as the mum. We thought that because the openig was planned to be filmed on a dull day due to the general weather around that time the dad would have to war a coat and jeans as it just looked right.




Son:      


Our film opening is set in modern time, so when picking the outfits I tried to fid things that teenagers nowadays would wear. Converse being one big brand tha a lot of teenagers wear, bodywarmers also ad because of the circumstances in the openig(them moving house) i thought that both the son and daughter would dress very effortless and comfortable, this is the reason the son is wearing joggers and the daughter is wearing a jumper and leggins.


Daughter: 

Makeup- No makeup will be worn by any of the family as any sort of makeup wouldnt really be appropriate for the scene. However the little girl in the attic will have dirt and grub on her hands, arms and what you can see of her face, it wont be clumped mud it will just be smeared over some parts of her skin, on her hands and the fingernails are an important part of this scene as the little girls hands are shown alot so she will have mud underneath her fingernails etc to show there's something different ad obviously not quite right about her.

Props- The props needed for this opening are a house, which we will be using Jack Stanleys house(one of the people in our group), a car in which will we use one of the people in our groups aswell, 3 or 4 suitcases to get out of the boot of the car in the scene, some photo's which we will take before filming and also a heart or other organs in which we will go to the butchers and get(we will hopefully get a pigs heart)

Planning - Casting

We have decided to cast Tonicha Hughes in the opening for our Horror Film and she will be playing the character of the Mum. After discussing many candidates we have decided that Tonicha will be the best possible option as she has Drama experience due to her studying A-Level Drama. We also believe that Tonicha has the appearance of a character that conventionally appears in a horror film. We believe that this will help further increase the atmosphere of a horror film. This character is also portrayed as being vulnerable and in a position of threat which we feel Tonicha matches this description well. 

We have decided that Luke Gibson will be the most appropriate person to play character of the Dad in our film opening. After considering many people to play this role we decided that Luke Gibson would be the best possible option. The reason we decided to choose Luke Gibson was because we felt his appearance was similar to those we have seen in most horror films, we felt this would be helpful as it would portray the conventions of horror film openings. We also considered the possibility that he could also play a vulnerable character due to his typically laid back approach, this could also build a relationship with the viewer and engage their attention as they wouldn't want the character to be on the wrong side of things.

Location Planning For Your Opening

In our opening we are planning to use a house. We have decided to use my house as our set because we can use specific parts of the house to make the opening more effective and realistic. Firstly, we decided to use my house due to the drive way being big enough to fit a car or people carrier on it. This will help us because we will need to be able to fit a large car at the front of the house for the cast (the family) to be moving in and also the main centre of the drive can be seen well from an upstairs window which could give us more options on camera angles and shots

This is the upstairs window shot that i think could be very useful when it comes to filming. T he window gives a good view of where the car will most probably be sitting but also gives the shot a good effect like it is a person watching the new family (the cast) which is an effect that I think we could use.

This is another part of the house that I think could be used as a good place for the threat to be hiding or not to be hiding. we could use the attic because it is dark and dusty and also has a lot of old photos and old objects which I think could add a good effect to any filming that could be done up there. the ladder that comes down from the attic is sturdy and retractable meaning we can steadily and easily film what we need if we need to.

Here is another part of the house that could be used for effect. The house we are planning on using also backs onto the woods. I think this would make a good establishing shot if we where to film it in the dark or a dusk because the shot would look dark empty and scary which would be a good foreshadowing point of our opening.

As you can see in this photo, the drive way is going to give us enough space for a car and also enough space to work with when it comes to filming around the cast (family) and also gives us enough room to zoom or pan when it comes to the edit.

Location Planning is important so we have a clear structure when it comes to the day of the filming. With the location planning it may mean that we aren't having to make a quick decision on where to film and could affect the quality of the production as the setting doesn't match the mood and aura of a horror film. Also by doing location planning it also helps us when choosing shots and where to place the camera. It gives us more options when we are constructing a shot list as it would leave us with less work to do on the day.

Producing A Storyboard For Your Opening

By drawing a storyboard I was then able to visualise more what the opening would look like once it was fully produced, it also helped in the planning process because I could see if something would look right etc. Using a storyboard was a good way of displaying which order the scenes would go in and also may help if we forget anything about the scene order, lay out etc. The group wont miss out any shots whilst filming if we follow the storyboard and although we may not use every short we can film them to make sure we have enough footage to make a good and effective opening.

Writing A Screenplay For Your Opening

'THE HIDDEN NIGHTMARE'

by Tonicha Hughes, Jack Gardner, Jack Stanley and Harrison Coe.

creepy nursery rhyme is playing in the background

family pull up the car on the drive

switch to girl in the attic you cant see her face only her hands she islooking at pictures of families of four

switches back to family who are just opening the doors and jumping out of the car laughing(you cant hear them laughing or talking)

switches back to girl who is scratching the eyes out of people in pictures

goes back to family who are making their way to the boot of the car to get their bags

back to girl who has some sort of organ(heart lungs etc) she will be cutting this up

This is a screenplay of just a section of our opening.

Research: What Is A Screenplay

A screenplay is a piece of writing which has been created to be inserted into a film. The screenplay will include what the audience will both see and hear whilst they're watching the movie. The screenplay isn't always the final piece but a guideline which the directors and producers will follow and input their own ideas. Above is the screenplay from the teen horror movie 'Scream'. Using this I can immediately see the differences between a screenplay and a script. The name of the character is placed in the middle and above the characters speech. The screenplay features far less detail then that of a script as it is just a guideline. The screenplay also features some of the shots such as interior kitchen. This will help us when producing our screenplay because I will know that I don't have to include all the details and can leave more vague then I would a script.

Research: The Importance of Sound in Horror Films

Sound is something which becomes iconic within a horror film. You would be able to identify films without watching them just by identifying the music. For example most people would be able to identify Jaws because of its famous theme tune, likewise with Psycho. Sound in Horror films is most commonly used to show the threat of danger and allows the viewer to identify if there is a threat.

Music in Horror Films contains something called non-linear sounds. This includes distorted notes and sounds similar to blowing too hard into a trumpet. Non linear sounds are used to enhance the emotional impact of scenes. Non Linear sounds can be created when somebody/something is put into a position of danger, this taps into the instinctive fear of the viewers and causes the fear to be created.

Something which has recently been used in horror films is the use of children's nursery rhymes. The nursery rhymes when played slowly can sound quite sinister and give the sense that any age group can be under threat. This shows how much of a part sound plays in horror movies.




The movie clip of above shows just how important that sound can be in horror movies. Without the sound in the clip it wouldn't be as scary, the sound creates all the tension and suspense in the clip as it signals the threat of the shark as it closes in on its prey. This increasing volume of music is probably the most iconic and most frequently used in horror movies.

Violin instruments are also often used in horror movies to create an eerie and tense feeling in the film. This is used in films such as suspiria and exorcist which have become famous since the release. The music in horror film also can determine what genre the film is, for example the opening of The Shining can be interpreted as a different genre if you were to change the music in the opening sequence due to the ambiguity, the sound is what allows people to decode whether it is a specific genre.